Huawei exec says “we’re doing the Nexus again this year”

It’s safe to say that the Nexus 6P has been the most well-received Nexus phone of all time. Sure, it’s a little too big for many, but its pros far outweigh the cons and it is even closer to perfection than the legendary Nexus 5. Well, what if Huawei was behind another Nexus in 2016? That seems to be what is happening, if a comment made by a Huawei exec on Thursday is to be believed.

During the South African launch of the new trio of Huawei phones, Charlene Munilall, general manager for Huawei’s Consumer Business Group in South Africa, told Gear Burn that “we’re doing the Nexus again this year, by the way.” While most rumors have pointed to HTC being the 2016 Nexus partner for both the high end “P” device and more affordable “X” Nexus, this latest statement throws those rumors for a loop.

Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Huawei could be behind this year’s high-end Nexus, but it’s the first time we’ve had a Huawei exec say as much. Of course, Munilall may have been referring to something else (she had been talking about South African Nexus 6P import numbers last year), but whatever she meant, it certainly adds a nice spin to the accepted state of affairs that HTC is making both 2016 Nexuses, codenamed Marlin and Sailfish.

THE 2015 NEXUSES:

As of last year’s unveiling, Google confirmed that going forward there would be two Nexus smartphones each year: a Nexus X device that would represent the core Nexus experience, and a Nexus P device for a more high-end stock experience. Huawei’s impressive debut with the Nexus 6P would certainly give Google reason to want to give them another run at bat, so we’re kind of hoping we do get to see both a Huawei Nexus and a HTC Nexus this year.

Here’s the full exchange, so you can judge the context for yourself:

“The Nexus product is a very niche product… the techies love it but there’s a very small number of people that buy it. Hence Cellucity only brought 300… into the country,” she explained.

“That said, the distributors, our open market, do bring in the device, that’s how Cellucity got it… and that will still be the same this year. We’re doing the Nexus again this year, by the way,” she explained.

We’ve reached out to Huawei for clarification and will update this article with any further details.

Would you be interested in another Huawei-made Nexus? Or would HTC do a better job?